Book one of The Godhead Trilogy, by James Morrow. Morrow is a self-described "liberal secular humanist", which is probably a good perspective from which to launch a novel about a supertanker captain who receives a divine commission to tow the 2-mile-long Corpus Dei to the Arctic Ocean for burial at sea.
One of the "unexpected inevitabilities" of the novel, according to Morrow, is the sailors' loss of a "moral compass" - if God is dead - I mean, really, most sincerely dead - what reason is there to behave morally? In the novel, the sailors regain their morality through the magic of the Kantian categorical imperative. There's lots more to this novel, of course; think communion. Dieu Bourguignon, anyone?
(Book two would be Blameless in Abaddon.) | 
